SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Woodbury County officials have been discussing plans for a new county jail and a bond issue to pay for it. County board chairman Keith Radig told the Sioux City Journal on Thursday that it makes more sense to build a jail that could cost between $35 million and $50 million than pay $12 million to $14 million for repairs on the current, 234-bed facility. It opened in 1987.

Radig says a new jail with 300 to 440 beds would provide extra space to accept federal detainees. The county could contract with federal immigration officials and receive around 80 inmates a day on average. The resulting hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue could possibly eliminate the need to pay back construction debt with property taxes.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A woman from Colombia has been sentenced for her role in an email scheme that defrauded companies in Iowa and other states. Prosecutors say Karina Henao was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids to 13 months in prison. Henao also was ordered to pay more than $297,000 in restitution. She pleaded guilty in November to wire fraud. Prosecutors say she’d been living in Florida.

A court document says Henao admitted that from September through November 2017 she participated in a scheme to infiltrate or otherwise gain access to email systems in order to divert money from the businesses’ bank accounts.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports a traffic stop at around 5-p.m. Thursday resulted in an arrest. A vehicle was pulled over for failure to display license plates. The K9 “Baxo” was deployed, and alerted to the odor of narcotics. Upon further investigation, Janet Scuturio (no city of residence given) was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance – Tramadol/1st offense. And, at around 9:15-p.m. Thursday, Adams County deputies responded to a reported domestic disturbance. As a result of their investigation, Robert Loe was placed under arrest for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense.

(Radio Iowa) — Two Democrats in the U.S. Senate — both presidential candidates — have a blunt message for Vice President Mike Pence. Last Friday while he was in southwest Iowa, Pence criticized senators who are presidential candidates for blocking a Senate vote on federal disaster aid because it lacked funding for two 2017 hurricanes. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says the president and vice president are pitting Puerto Ricans against Iowans.

“If we’ve learned anything from history, if we exclude one group, they’re going to exclude the next group and then then next group,” Gillibrand says, “and then eventually it will be you.”

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar says the Trump Administration is trying to “siphon money away” from Puerto Rican hurricane victims rather than approve the broader approach Democrats in the House have taken. Both Klobuchar and Gillibrand have visited flood victims in western Iowa. Klobuchar went to Pacific Junction three weeks ago and visited a woman who had to use binoculars to see her home in the distance — in the middle of the flooding.

“When it comes to infrastructure…there’s no Republican levee or a Democratic levee. There are only levees,” Klobuchar said. “And we should not be talking politics about this. We should be talking about how we come together.” On Wednesday, Gillibrand went to a home in Pacific Junction with a couple returning to see the flood damage for the first time. “Devastation. I can’t tell you how heartbreaking it was,” Gillibrand says. “…Congress needs to come together and pass that relief package. Now.”

On Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said he’d like to invite Pence to join Democrats and Republicans in congress to find a solution that helps “all Americans” recovering from natural disasters rather than have disaster victims exploited for political gain.